Unless you’re one of those freaks, running pretty much sucks. It’s hard and it’s boring. While nothing but training can make it any easier, there are ways to make it more interesting.

Enter Zombies, Run!, an iOS app created by developer Six to Start and writer Naomi Alderman that turns your running routine into a game. Six to Start calls the app a “Running Game and Audio Adventure,” and as far as I know, it’s the first of its kind.

Most of us in 2012 have phones that are capable of playing games. Not all of these phones or games are equal, but whether you have an iPhone, an Android, a Windows Phone, or you are some poor silly bastard still stuck with a BlackBerry, chances are you can play Angry Birds on it. Hell, even if you have one of those crazy old phones with buttons on it, there are still games you can play that are entertaining enough to make you forget your train ride, your wait at the doctor’s office, or those excruciating two minutes of boredom during commercials. Games like this may not be high art, but they are enough.

When Nintendo formally announced the Wii U, it’s upcoming home console, at the 2011 E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), it gave me pause to think about my storied past with the video game colossus, what it has meant to me, and if our relationship is headed for a dead end.

When I was a little kid, I was in love with Nintendo. I’d play my NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) until my thumbs were sore, and then I’d keep playing. I didn’t have very many games, and I wasn’t particularly amazing at them, but that didn’t stop me from attempting the the same level in Ninja Gaiden more times than I could possibly stand to now. Maybe I’ve lost my patience, maybe I just didn’t know any better, but I was a machine.